Waking Up
by caseyanne
Summary: It has nearly been a month since Alison's return to Rosewood. Can Emily & Paige make their way back to each other? Set in Season 5, Paily smut may be included in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

It had been almost a month since Alison DiLaurentis returned from the dead and came back to Rosewood. The small town was in a whirlwind still buzzing with the news of her terrifying kidnapping, the recent and brutal murder of her mother Jessica DiLaurentis and the suspicious death of local girl Shana Fling in New York.

Rosewood used to be such a peaceful town, but those days had passed many years ago now. The town seemed to be a hub for abnormal and tragic events, the deaths of its local townspeople seemed to have increased over the years, homes had destroyed by gas explosions, fires or even cars driving straight through peoples living rooms. Nothing was normal about Rosewood anymore.

It was Friday afternoon and Paige McCullers had just arrived home from her daily swimming practice after school. She pushed the front door open and was greeted by a dark house, not that she minded, as this generally meant her parents were not yet home from their after work drinks with colleagues which usually drifted off into the late hours of the night. She made her way to the kitchen and flicked on a few lights and started rummaging through the cupboards to find some snacks to fill the hunger growling in her stomach. Upon finding some low-carb chocolate flavoured energy bars, only her parents would ever consider this as a type of 'treat food', she walked around the kitchen and started closing the blinds as the sun was starting to set in the west. She chewed down on the energy bar and aimlessly looked around the kitchen until her eyes came to rest upon a note on the kitchen bench written in her mother's impeccable handwriting.

'Paige,

Your father and I have gone away to visit your aunt for the weekend.

We expect you to have all of your homework and assignments completed by the time we get back on Sunday afternoon, no slacking off especially since it is senior year.

If you need anything you can reach us on our cells.

Love Mom

xoxo'

Paige let out a sigh of relief, finally she had some time to herself without her parents constant excessive questions about her swimming times, school grades or the sudden lack of a certain Miss Emily Fields wondering about their house as of late. It had only been 5 weeks since Emily had broken up with her, and every day felt just as hard and empty as the last. Paige still loved her more than anything in this world, would do or give up anything for her, and no matter what she did or said Emily just couldn't or wouldn't see where she was coming from when she told the police about Alison being alive. All she ever wanted to do was keep her girlfriend safe, but ultimately their relationship was the price for Emily's safety and Paige had to live with that consequence.

Paige scrunched up the piece of paper and tossed it into bin on her way out of the kitchen, she grabbed her heavy schoolbag off of the floor and grudgingly made her way up the stairs to her room. Inside her room, the air was hot and stuffy from being locked up all day, she walked over to the window by her bed and cracked it open a few inches to let in some fresh air. Exhaustion suddenly took over and Paige collapsed onto her bed, rolling over to face the ceiling feeling utterly drained from practice and so thankful that there was a soft and comforting pillow to cradle her head.

Turning on her side to get more comfortable her eyes focused on the picture frame she kept beside her bed on the nightstand. Inside the frame was a picture of her &amp; Emily taken only a few months ago at her aunt's lake house, they had managed to sneak away together for a weekend alone without a care in the world, it ended up being one of the happiest weekends Paige had ever experienced in her mere 17 years on this earth.

Pain shot through her body and tightened in her chest as she her mind started to recall the events of this week just past, the rumors that were spreading like wildfire around school kept swimming around in her head. Every time she had accidentally seen Emily in school, Alison was right beside her, leaning in close, lightly brushing her hand on Emily's perfectly tanned skin, Paige couldn't take it and would quickly walk off in the opposite direction incase she saw something that would confirm the stories to be true and her worst nightmare possible, that Emily &amp; Alison were now an item.

Feeling overwhelmed by it all, her head started to spin and she took a deep breath before closing her eyes to shut out the world. Pulling her pillow close to her chest, hugging it she listened to the light sound of raindrops starting to hit roof of her house, within minutes she managed shut out the world fall into a deep slumber.


	2. Chapter 2

Emily absently stared out at the neighbourhood from the comfort of her window seat in her bedroom as strangers passed by going about their business. She often wondered if their lives were as complicated as hers, with all of the drama in this town she and her friends seemed to always be in the middle of it. Suddenly she was snapped out of her thoughts by the vibration of her phone against her leg, her hand delved into her jeans pocket and pulled out the phone to see the lit up screen saying that she had had one incoming text from Alison Dilaurentis. Emily's sighed and clicked open the text and read the message aloud to herself.

'Em I need you tonight, my dad is not home I need a lift to the brew and then I can crash at your place tonight after I'm done meeting up with Noel Kahn. I'll see you in 5 minutes.'

That was Alison alright, not a question but an order. Emily felt naïve to think that maybe things would change and be better this time around once Alison returned home, that somehow she would been transformed by this whole experience and be more appreciative of everything her and her friends have done for her over the past few years. Emily couldn't even count the number of times they had all had faced life threatening dangerous situations to find out the truth about what happened that summer on the Labor Day weekend and the identity of their obsessive and tormentor stalker that simply went by the alias of 'A'.

Their whole lives had been turned upside down since Alison returned and the interaction directly between the pair of them had been confusing to say the least. The things Alison would say to her, the way she would lightly caress Emily's skin with her own, and of course that kiss… since that stolen kiss in Emily's bed, something didn't feel quite right between them. Emily had feelings for Alison in the past, but present day Emily wasn't so sure if those feelings were the same as before. Looking back on that kiss now, it somehow felt so fake, like she was living a lie, and that Alison was trying to manipulate Emily's feelings like she had done the many times before her disappearance.

And then there was Paige McCullers.

Just thinking about Paige made Emily's head spin and feel disorientated. Over the past week or so every time she saw a glimpse of Paige at school, it was only of the back of her head as she was walking away in the opposite direction. Emily had this feeling in her gut that Paige was avoiding her and it made her heart ache. Emily had been the one to end their relationship, but it wasn't because she didn't love or care about Paige anymore, it was about trust and a broken promise. She entrusted Paige with sensitive information about Alison being alive and Paige just threw her under the bus and handed that information over to the cops. The police force in Rosewood was a joke, the only thing they could successfully and accurately catch is the flu.

Buzz buzz.

She felt her phone go off again; she checked her screen to see another message from Alison.

'Well?! I don't have time for you to daydream about naked supermodels Em, hurry up I'm outside and it's starting to rain.'

Emily swiftly felt a wave of anger course through her body, she wasn't anyone's personal chauffeur or assistant. What did Alison expect? Her to drop everything all the time and be at her begging call? Maybe in the past, but not today, and most certainly never again she told herself. Hastily she typed a response and pressed send.

'Sorry, I've already got plans.'

Buzz buzz.

'Fine, let me down again. You can make it up to me later.'

Emily surged with rage and lept off of the window seat and starting pacing the room trying to calm herself down, it felt like her head would explode she was so mad, then something caught her eye sitting on a bookshelf in the corner of the room.

It was a blue envelope with a hand written letter inside that she had received from Paige a couple of months back. Emily hesitantly walked over to the bookcase, and picked up the envelope and pulled out the letter from inside. She paused for a moment and took a deep breath before unfolding the piece of paper and started to scroll her eyes over the words written there.

'To my love,

You are the most beautiful person inside and out that I have ever met Emily, every day I wake up and pinch myself as I cannot believe that someone as amazing and perfect as you would ever be with me.

I can't wait to see you on Saturday at the lake house, I promise to make it a weekend we both will never forget.

Yours Always,

Paige'

Tears started flowing down her cheeks and that's when it hit her, what a fool she had been.

How could she have dumped Paige? Just casually tossed aside sweet, kind, loving Paige. At the time they broke up Emily was hurt that Paige went behind her back, even though deep down she knew that she was only doing it to try and protect Emily but her feelings for Alison had clouded her judgement and turned her into someone she didn't recognise anymore. Emily had never stopped loving Paige, and now she had made such a mess of everything but no more, she had to go, she had to go and see Paige right now and apologise and hope that one day, no matter how far in the future it may be, that one day she could forgive her for treating her so badly.

Emily grabbed her running jacket that was resting on the chair next to her desk and raced down the stairs causing a large thumping sound to resonate around the house. Launching at the door handle she threw the door open and slammed it quickly behind her as she ran outside into the cold dark of the night.

The rain hit her face hard as it poured down making it hard to see but she didn't care, all she could think about was getting to Paige's house as soon as possible.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors Note: Hey Guys, so sorry for the really long delay in posting a new chapter. I had some personal stuff going on which is now sorted and I can focus on writing again, yay! Thanks to everyone for writing reviews, they are so appreciated! Enjoy xx**

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The doorbell rang 3 times prior to Paige finally being disturbed from her slumber, she inwardly sighed as she rubbed her eyes and quickly checked the time on her phone lying on the desk next to her bed.

'7pm already? I must have been out cold for at least 2 hours' She said aloud to herself as she slowly eased up off of the bed and starting walking downstairs to the presumably an impatient Jehovah's witness waiting on the opposite side of the house's front door.

Paige grabbed the door knob and sighed, the last thing she wanted to do was make small talk about the big guy upstairs but as she swung the door open and her eyes landed on what what was on the other side of the door, Paige's heart literally skipped a beat.

Emily.

Emily Fields.

Emily Frickin Fields.

Paige didn't know how to react, she just kind of awkwardly gaped her mouth open and shut in shock as her eyes started to trail their way up and down Emily's body slowly. Emily was absolutely drenched from head to toe in a mixture of rain and sweat, her chest rising up and down quickly trying to catch her breath and her wet hair was sticking flatly to the sides of her face. Paige nervously gulped as she noticed her wet clothes clinging to her body, making her suddenly feel flushed as if the heat in the atmosphere just tripled.

Paige realised that she must be dreaming, the sight of Emily standing on her porch was just too good to be true.

They held each other's gaze for what felt like a lifetime until Emily opened her mouth to break the silence.

"Paige… I'm so sor-" was all Emily managed to get out before Paige suddenly moved forward crushing their bodies together and pressed her lips hard against hers. If this was a dream, Paige was going to enjoy herself first before being snapped back to the harshness of reality.

The kiss was intense and consuming, their hands grabbing for one another trying to pull the other closer and never wanting to let go.

Emily quickly guided the girl to take a few steps backwards into the house, once bringing them both inside she uses her left foot to the kick the door shut behind them without their mouths ever parting from each other.

Feeling a wave of confidence Emily spun Paige around and pushed her hard up against the large wooden door, hastily she pulled back and manoeuvred her jacket off and grabbed the hem of her white tank top and peeled it from her skin within 5 seconds flat, leaving only a black lace bra on display on her top half. Emily's cheeks flushed a bright crimson colour as she noticed the hungry and lustful way Paige's eyes were scanning her body, it made her feel alive.

Paige reached forward and took Emily's arm in her hand and pulled her towards her but at the last minute spun around to now have Emily's back flush up against the door, Paige eagerly pressing her body firmly against hers loving the way they perfectly fit together. She had originally intended on letting Emily take the lead and control in their sex dream but Paige couldn't stand it having a semi naked Emily infront of her and not act out on her desires. Within seconds Paige's lips were on Emily's neck sucking and nipping their way agonisingly slow towards her collarbone as her hands which were previously gripping the others girls waist, slowly started making their way up towards the lace material covering Emily's breasts.

The dark haired beauty originally planned to just come over to her ex-girlfriend's house to apologise and try to beg for forgiveness for her recent behaviour, but never in her mind had she thought things would be ending up like this. Suddenly she felt Paige's lip sucking hard on her pulse point and a loud moan released from her red and swollen lips. She was in heaven.

Paige smirked against Emily's neck at the sound of the girl of her dreams moaning against her, she applied more pressure as she leant downwards once more and sucked harder and rougher this time on the girls pulse point and bringing up her hand to cup Emily's right breast through her bra, pinching the nipple with some force.

Involuntarily Emily sank her teeth into Paige's exposed shoulder biting her hard to stifle the groan threatening to come out. Paige winched and swore at the sharp pain now shooting through her shoulder, taking a step back she closed her eyes tightly to any potential tears from escaping due to pain.

That's when it hit her; you don't feel physical pain when dreaming. This wasn't a dream.


	4. Chapter 4

"Are you ok?" Emily asked, her voice laced with concern as Paige was staring at her with a look of panic.

Paige's heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, her checks were flushed, and her head started spinning. Before she knew it her breathing quickened to shallow breaths and a sense of all consuming fear was starting to take hold.

Emily quickly noticed the change in Paige's demeanour and saw the warning signs of an oncoming panic attack. She took a step closer to Paige and gently placed her hands on each side of Paige's head and tried to bring her focus to look into her eyes.

"Paige it's ok, just look at me" She said softly as she traced her index finger up and down Paige's right cheek.

Paige met Emily's gaze, her breathing was starting to become erratic.

"Everything will be ok, just try and focus on slowing down your breathing. Remember the techniques Dr Sullivan taught you. I'll count with you"

"1, breathe in and out slowly"

"2, breathe in and out….."

"3, breathe in and out…."

"And again, 1, breathe in and out…"

They continued counting for the next few minutes before Paige was able to calm herself down to regular breathing. As Paige's composure started to return she slowly took a few steps backwards out of Emily's reach and watched the girl lower her hands back down to her sides.

Emily kept her gaze on Paige, noticing how sad and fragile she looked, almost like a wounded puppy. All she wanted to do was reach forward and pull her into her arms in a tight embrace but being uncertain of what Paige's reaction would be, she restrains herself.

"Why are you here Emily?" Paige said softly, barely louder than a whisper as she wrapped her arms around her mid-section and avoided eye contact with the beautiful girl in front of her.

Here goes nothing, Emily thought to herself.

''I came here to apologise, for the way I've treated you over these past few weeks… but then you started kissing me and…."

Paige nodded silently and slowly cast her gaze up Emily's rain drenched body, noticing how her skin was starting to raise with goosebumps. She quietly walked out of the room leaving a confused look on Emily's face only to return a few moments later with a bath towel in her hands.

"Here, you must be freezing" she said as she extended her hand out to her.

Emily smiled shyly and took the towel from Paige's hand and wrapped it around her shoulders.

"Thanks. Is there somewhere we can talk?" Emily asked as she peered around the house looking for a sign of Paige's parents assuming they were somewhere within the house.

"Yeah, we can talk in my room" she said hesitantly. Sure her parents weren't home and they could use the lounge room, but she wanted Emily somewhere which was just hers. Paige turned around and walked upstairs with Emily in tow, once they were inside the bedroom she leant around Emily to close the door behind her.

Paige stepped back standing directly in front of Emily, only a few inches now separated the pair.

"So…..."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"…you wanted to talk?"

Paige gulped nervously, being in such proximity to Emily's lips felt like sweet torture but she wanted, no needed, to hear out what the brunette had to say.

"I've been such an idiot Paige, about everything. Ali is still the same old manipulative Ali, and I can't believe I feel under her whole spell again, I'm so stupid!" Emily blurted out quickly.

Paige silently nodded, indicating she was still listening and for her to go on.

"But most of all, I royally fucked up when it comes to us." The sad look on Emily's face telling Paige she genuinely meant what she was saying.

Paige remained silent for a moment taking all the new information in. As the tension in the air grew heavy, she decided to ask the question that she feared the answer to most of all.

"Did you sleep with her?"

"No" Emily responded immediately.

A wave of relief and happiness flowed through Paige's entire being, she felt light a giant weight had been lifted.

"So nothing happened between the two of you?"

Emily ducked her head feeling incredibly guilty, the inability to meet Paige's eyes portraying her answer.

"Oh." Paige said taking on a harder tone, her flow of happiness had sizzled out.

Paige turned around facing away from Emily and walked over to stand by the window looking outside, trying to keep the range of emotions raging inside of her from spilling out.

Emily knew this would be extremely hard for Paige to hear but she deserved the truth, she took a deep breath before proceeding.

"Ali came over to my house one night; she was really upset so I let her stay over. As I was starting to fall asleep she leant over and kissed me… and for a little while I kinda kissed her back."

Emily looked over to Paige standing by the window, watching Paige's body tense under her words.

"She wanted to… you know… but I stopped her." Emily continued.

"Why?" Paid said coldly, still looking outside.

"I didn't know why at the time but it just felt wrong, but now I realised my heart had moved on. Alison was my first love, but the only person who owns my heart now is you."

Paige turned around to face Emily, feeling slightly better from hearing the girl's final words but still understandably upset.

"You really hurt me Em, I can't just forget and pretend that it never happened. And I can't ever forgive Alison for the way she treated me before she went missing or whatever lie she's concocted this time. She made my life a living hell, I don't think she went on a magical spirit quest and had a personality transplant whilst she was gone."

"I know I've hurt you and let you down so much, but I plan on making it up to you for the rest of my life… if you let me." Emily said pleadingly and grabbing a hold of Paige's hands.

Paige looked down at their joined hands, a part of her wanted to scream 'YES' so badly and to pull the girl in for a passionate kiss that would bruise their lips for days but her guard around her heart was already too raised.

"Honestly I don't know, I'm going to need some time to think about this. How about we just hang out and see how things go for the time being? It's the best I can do right now."

"Okay, I can do that." Emily smiled and Paige returned it slightly.

"So we're friends?" Emily prodded.

"Ugh, I hate it when people say refer to a situation like this with that saying."

"How about amigos? buddies? chums? pals?"

Paige couldn't help but chuckle at Emily's suggestions and just shook her head.

"Ok fine no labels to this mutual hanging out of two awesome people." She said pretending to be sad and admitting defeat.

Then out of the corner of her eye Emily spotted something on Paige's desk that sparked her interest, she walked over and picked up the DVD case and studied it carefully.

"Rudy, really? I thought you couldn't stand this movie." She asked incredulously.

Paige's face quickly became flushed, suddenly feeling caught out.

"Yeah, but it reminded me of you." She answered truthfully.

It was now Emily's turn to blush; Paige smiled as she caught the girl's reaction.

Paige looked to the clock on her wall and hesitated weighing up some options in her head, it was starting to get late but she didn't want to say goodbye to Emily just yet and be left in the house all alone.

"Do you maybe want to stay and watch it? I mean, someone should at least enjoy the DVD otherwise its whole existence is a waste." Paige asked shyly.

Nothing could have stopped the giant smile that formed on Emily's face if it had tried.

"I'd love to! Umm but before that, can I have a quick shower and maybe borrow some clothes? I'm starting to get frostbite over here."

"Yeah sure, of course." Paige walked over and fumbled around in her drawers before pulling out a spare hoodie and tracksuit pants and handed it to Emily.

"Thanks" Emily smiled sweetly at her and then made way into the bathroom just down the hallway from Paige's bedroom.

Paige heard the shower water starting to run and allowed herself the mental image of a naked Emily soaping her body to cross her mind before she quickly dismissed it, she walked downstairs to the kitchen to heat up some popcorn to try and distract herself from those lingering thoughts.

When Paige returned to her room she was greeted with the image of how perfect Emily looked curled up on her bed with her head propped up on a pillow as the movie was starting to roll through the opening credits.

"You've made popcorn, awesome!" Emily smiled and then patted her hand on the bed beside her, beckoning Paige to come join her.

Paige lay down beside Emily and used the other pillow to make a comfy head rest, feeling slightly nervous again but shook it off, having those feelings right now would only complicate matters further.

By about 40 minutes into the film, both girls were fast asleep as the TV continued to play in the background.


	6. Chapter 6

**Authors Note: Sorry about the lateness of this next chapter, I've just returned from being overseas for the last few months and I didn't have a laptop with me. This chapter is courtesy of many hand written words on the back of purchase receipts. Enjoy!**

Emily was the first to wake, she opened her eyes and looked towards the TV to be greeted with the DVD menu for Rudy playing on a consistent loop. She groaned as her eyes adjusted to the light in the room which was starting to stream in through the curtains covering the bedroom window, doing so she became aware of her current surroundings and her sleeping position. Emily was laying on her side with her back pressed up against Paige's chest, the other girl's hand was nestled just barely underneath the waistband of the borrowed tracksuit pants, only a few centimeters above where Emily really wanted her hand to go. All drowsiness quickly gone as she felt her sleeping companion's hot breath tickling her neck, the senses in her body were suddenly very awake and switched on.

'Paige McCullers, I swear you are trying to kill me right now'. She thought to herself.

As much as Emily wanted to close her eyes and stay wrapped up in Paige's embrace for the rest of the morning, she had already organised to meet with the girls at the brew in a couple of hours. She slowly started to gently ease her body away from the sleeping girl but as she did Paige's arm only tightened bringing Emily closer to her and lowering her hand further so now her fingertips were grazing the soft hairs on the inside at the top of the girl's underwear.

'Seriously?!' Emily shouted internally. This was starting to become torturous, she wanted to respect Paige's wishes that they had discussed last night, despite the fact that her body was screaming at her to roll over and worship the athlete's body with her mouth.

Emily cleared her throat. "Paige?" She whispered.

No response.

"Paige?" She said noticeably louder this time.

Paige slowly started to stir and snuggled in closer to Emily's neck for a moment before she realised what she was doing, she was spooning the girl infront of her and her hand felt incredibly hot before it clicked in her mind where that hand was now positioned. She removed her hand so quickly that Emily let out an involuntary whimper before trying to cover it up with a forced cough. Doing so, Paige sprung out of the bed as if it was on fire.

"I'm so sorry Emily, I-I didn't mean to -" She blurted out nervously.

Emily rose from the bed to join her and simply placed her forefinger against the girl's lips to silence her.

"It's ok, seriously. Don't sweat it." Emily said as she smiled sweetly at her, trying to ease the poor girl's embarrassment.

Paige felt instantly calmer and returned the girl's smile as she gazed into the brunette's eyes, she felt like she could get lost in those gorgeous orbs all day.

"Still, I'm sorry." She repeated as she scratched the back of her head, a well known habit she did when she was nervous.

The tension in the air was suddenly broken by the sound of a cellphone vibrating against the floor, Emily bend down beside her and picked it up and glanced at the screen. 15 missed calls and 8 text messages, all from her mother.

"Crap, my mom is freaking out. I didn't tell her where I was going last night, she's probably rung half the neighbourhood by now. I should get going."

"Yeah I guess that's for the best. Your clothes should be dry by now, I'll go get them for you." Paige said quietly, the sudden realisation creeping in that she will be all alone in her house for the rest of the weekend.

The athlete walked downstairs to the laundry and returned a couple of minutes later with the other girl's outfit and handed it to her. Emily ducked out to the bathroom down the hall and changed whilst Paige took the opportunity to make her bed. She turned back around when she heard Emily's footsteps by the door.

"Thanks for letting me stay last night, even though we both fell asleep by accident. I didn't want to put you in an awkward or uncomfortable position." Emily spoke with an apologetic tone.

"It's not a problem, you didn't make me uncomfortable. Actually from the way we woke up it's obvious I was very comfortable" She laughed nervously and shot the girl a smile.

Emily returned the smile and looked deeply into the other girls eyes.

"I know you need some time Paige to figure everything out. But I want you to know when and if you are ever ready to give me another chance., I'll be here waiting for you". Emily took a step forward and leaned in slowly, she softly brushed her lip's against Paige's cheek depositing a tender kiss.

When Emily pulled back she saw that Paige's eyes were now closed and her lips slightly parted. Paige quickly opened her eyes at the loss of contact and regained her composure and returned the girl's smile.

"Have a good day Paige."

"You too Emily."

And with that Emily turned and headed downstairs towards the front door, once Paige heard the click of the door opening and shutting she brought her hand up to where Emily's lips had been just a moment ago and blushed.

"C'mon McCullers get a hold of yourself." She said aloud to herself and headed towards the bathroom. She turned the cold water on and stepped under the heavy stream of water, her mind only focusing on one thing, the tanned goddess that still made her heart race.


End file.
